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Sole surviving gunman of 2008 Mumbai attacks hung in India

His
image captured on a video camera shocked and horrified the world. Now,
the sole surviving gunman of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai has been hung by
the neck until dead. The execution of 25-year-old Mohammed Ajmal Kasab
marked the first time since India carried out an execution since 2004.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The 2008 Mumbai attacks were 11 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamist terrorists. The gunmen were trained in and shipped from Pakistan.

The attackers allegedly received reconnaissance assistance before the attacks. Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, later confessed upon interrogation that the attacks were conducted with the support of Pakistan's ISI.

Several foreigners, some of India's wealthy business elite, and poor train commuters were killed by 10 Pakistani gunmen in the three-day rampage through some of Mumbai's best-known landmarks, including two luxury hotels and a Jewish center.

Kasab was filmed walking through Mumbai's main train station carrying an AK-47 assault rifle and a knapsack on his back in an attack where 60 people were gunned down in the crowded station.

The attacks drew widespread global condemnation. The bloodshed began on Wednesday, November 26 and lasted until Saturday, November 29 of 2008. The attacks killed 164 people and wounded at least 308.

India's Supreme Court upheld Kasab's death sentence in August over the attack. A Pakistani national, Kasab was executed at 7:30 a.m. local time.

The execution at Yerawada Prison in Pune, near Mumbai, came just hours after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy plea by Kasab, who had said he belonged to the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

In footage obtained by NDTV in India, Kasab told an investigator that his father had encouraged him to join with the rebels.

"Son, who asked you to come here?" the investigator asks.

"My father did. He told me, son, we are very poor," Kasab replies.

The investigator interrupted, surprised: "Your father?"

"He said, 'You will live and learn just like these people do. It is not difficult. We will also get money. We will be rid of our poverty. Your brothers and sisters can get married. Son, you will live comfortably like these people do.'"